>> confirmation of a catastrophe, debris is wreckage from the missing air asia jet. bodies were pulled from the water. >> i had to look for myself to find life jackets. >> survival stories from a nightmare at sea passengers describes chaos on a ferry that became a floating fireball.

>> no justice no peace. >> an autopsy sparking protests on the streets of los angeles the death of a young black man shot and killed by a police officer. >> i feel like rosa parks, you know. we need to get rid of discrimination. >> breaking ground on gay marriage. a look back on the most progressive year in american history for same sex couples. >> welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. >> i'm stephanie sy. >> indonesian officials have located dozens of bodies in the java sea from the missing air asia jet. an emergency door and other debris in the water came from flight 8501. a shadow of what appears to be the aircraft is underwater. >> this is a live look where indonesia's president is set to

speak. we have more on what they did find overnight. >> good morning air asia has put out a statement only in the last few minutes confirming to the debris found is from the missing plane. since it was discovered just a few hours ago an indonesian navy vessel has been recovering bodies. reuters reporting that at least 40 have been retrieved so far. the debris and remains were found in the giant sea of the island close to the plane's last known location. >> the announcement on indonesian television searches spotted what appeared to be bodies floating in the java sea. teams have been frantically looking for the missing air asia plane that disappeared sunday with 162 people onboard. this morning indonesian officials say a shadow under the water could be the plane. searchers also discovered life jackets and emergency door and other debris.

>> i declare there is a 95% chance judging from the location we've searched and location of the did he he brie, we assume that it came from the plane. >> families broke down in tears when they heard the grief evident on their faces. some so devastated, they had to be carried out on stretchers. they've been waiting in agony. this is not the news they'd hoped to hear. the c.e.o. of air asia, tony fernandez tweeted: >> at least 30 ships, 15 aircraft and seven helicopters from several countries have been looking for the airbus. flight 8501 took off at 5:35 local time sunday morning heading for singapore. the plane was flying at

32,000 feet, but asked air traffic controllers to climb to avoid bad weather. 42 minutes later the plane dropped off radar there was no distress call. the father of the pilot said he wants his son to come back alive, other families have been operating for a similar outcome players that may not know be answered. >> i still hope they can find the plane and from the bottom of my heart i want them to still be alive. >> inside the departure terminal, people are leaving notes of support for passengers and their loved ones. >> the next step is for investigators trying to determine if that shadow is actually the main body of the missing plane or not. all resources are now focused on the debris site. this brings to a conclusion a terrible year for malaysian aviation. this plane was owned by a

malaysian company. they account for half of all commercial aviation deaths this year alone. >> we're going to be talking about that. thankthank you very much. >> let's go back live now to indonesia's second largest city. a lot of the victims in this crash from that city. the president is speaking right now. victims families have been gathering in a special crisis center at the airport and we are there. >> a very emotional day on tuesday here, it started just like the other two days before this started family members came in, trickled information about the search and rescue area that was being looked at, quite a large area. today it expanded quite a bit more vessel and aircraft from other nations. early afternoon, the worst news for those family members here and that was initially the head of a search and rescue operation in jakarta through a live

telecast told the nation that he was 95% is that your bodies were found that belonged to that aircraft. later after that, it was confirmed by a high ranking naval official that he was 100% sure that's what it is. now the grim task of continuing to retrieve the bodies. six have been retrieved out of the water by helicopter, then put on to some naval vessels in the area, indonesian naval vessels. they will make their way to where the aircraft took off funds morning. they will be identified. the family members will be here. this is going to be a difficult time for them. it is not going to be over just when the bodies come back and are identified. the investigation is going to take some time as to why the aircraft went down. there is shallow water they cecil wet in the water of what probably is the main part of this aircraft, so it will be a little easier to retrieve in

shallow water and identified, put scientific forensic work that needs to be done to establish why it went down is going to take months. add that to the time that these family members will have to deal with it, so it's going to be a long emotional roller coaster for these families here now waiting for the bodies for that identification process. >> the debris will be transported a a facility close to the airport. that's where investigators will start putting the jet back together to figure out what happened. >> let's go live to libby casey in washington. the question is has the u.s. been offering assistance to indonesia officials? >> good morning. the uss sampson, which is part of the seventh fleet and based in san diego was already in the western pacific. it was authorized yesterday to go help with the search and rescue efforts. it's a destroyer with sonar exhibits something that could

definitely come in handy. the legional authorities are leading the search, but the u.s. navy is assisting where it can. >> what reaction have we heard from the state department this morning? >> nothing at this early hour, but the state department confirmed earlier this week that there are no americans onboard that plane. among those being kept appraised of what's going on, the ntsb, the national transportation safety board. it has offered and seance if it can be of use. they wouldn't normally be involved because this is not an american carrier but they have expertise in sorting out what that is in a crash like this. president obama being kept aware of the situation from his vacation in hawaii. u.s. embassies in jakarta say they are also staying in close contact with indonesian authorities. >> libby, thank you very much. >> joining us now is jay rollins, a former american airlines pilot aviation expert

joining us from fort lauderdale florida. good morning whether rollins. based on the facts reported this morning about the bodies being intact and not wearing life jackets, what clues does that offer investigators? >> it does appear that the aircraft same down largely intact because it is close to the site where the radar last picked them up and that is sort of pointing to the direction of an aerodynamic stall where the aircraft gets too slow inflate. there was a screen grab from the radar system, the air traffic control radar system that has been floating around that shows the aircraft with an abnormally low speed and in a climbing mode. that combination is not good and suggests that the aircraft was climbing and losing speed. if you do that long enough, you can reach an aerodynamic stall

which will make the aircraft at least momentarily unflyable. >> we have heard this scenario before of an airplane stalling. what options does a pilot have at that point and is it possible that this pilot then tried to land the aircraft on the ocean? >> the options are when the aircraft begins stalling, that's what pilots are largely trained to recover from. in the case of a high altitude stall like what we're talking about here, it's a little trickier, but certainly something that can be flown out of but this is another one of those cases where you would need to click off the auto pilot any kind of automation and fly it by hand and that's the part that gets concerning. >> that's what i wanted to ask you, because this issue has also come up before, the use of auto pilot. when you're talking about dicey weather, which in this case

which was, how much does a pilot's skill play into getting out of a situation like this? >> first there's good mental judgment. you need to avoid a situation as much as possible but if you find yourself in that situation, then you have to be very focused on keeping the aircraft within a safe flying speed. the higher you get the narrow we are that range of speed becomes. in this case, they were at the more narrow range of aerodynamic stability than they would be down lower. in that instance, you have to keep concentration on keeping the speed under control and then if you do find yourself in a stalled situation to immediately recover but it will require some altitude in order to do that, a loss of some altitude. >> what is the fact that there were no distress calls after that initial call talking about changing altitude tell you?

is that unusual when a pilot is dealing with a crisis? >> it tell us that they were dealing with a crisis, especially if the aircraft came down mostly intact. they were probably struggling to keep the airplane airborne and we are taught as pilots to and i have 80, and a half date and lastly communicate. if they had their hands full and i have 80ing they may never have gotten to the communicating. >> things of better but still marginal in the area. now that the area is identified, they can work around that weather to get the best use out of what is happening in the region. on google earth this is the last position of the plane reported on radar. some debris is toward the

southeast, some of it about six miles away. what is happening here is there is an ocean current from the north down towards the southeast. now that we know that, they can look more down towards the southeast because of the current. you can see on google earth all the showers that are in the area. let's put this into motion, i want to show you the last 24 hours. it is these thunderstorms popping up. i'm going to talk about why these thunderstorms are here this time of year, but if we were talking about the summertime, we would be seeing clearer conditions and flatter water, but unfortunately, this is the time of year that we see these storms. >> our coverage is going to continue on this breaking news story. coming up in 10 minutes, john henry smith is going to join us to look into the checkered history of aviation in indonesia. >> a deadly ferry fire in the

adriatic sea, we have a report. >> the last were lifted from the crippled ferry monday afternoon 36 hours after the fire took hold. italian and greek helicopters winched passengers and they were teen safety on nearby vessels. there is confusion over the total number of people rescued. it appears to be lower than the number on the ship's manifest of 478. this has led to speculation that some people are still missing. >> the fact is that among the people rescued are some names that are not on the manifest. at this point we need to review entirely all that embarked on this trip and this is give us some difficulty. >> passengers were transferred to the port, exhausted and cold

from their ordeal, a number needed medical treatment, but most of them were transferred later to continue their onward journeys. some described chaotic scenes onboard when the crisis first started. >> no communication nobody to tell us what to do. i had to look for myself to find life jackets. i had to put it on my kids by myself. nobody was there to -- ok, it was a panic, it was crazy. >> we had to jump into a boat and then we were about three hours in the sea because there was -- it was very, very unbelievably wavy, the ropes broke lots of times. we did two to three attempts to get up on the boat and we had to go up a rope ladder. >> the italian navy and cord guard said given the intensity of the fire onboard the appalling weather conditions and the fact that people spent so long exposed to the elements on

the upper desks waiting to be rescued, it's a surprise that more people weren't seriously injured and that for now at least, the number of fatalities appears to be relatively low. the italian authorities ever started a criminal investigation and specialist teams are searching the stricken vessel's lower decks in case other bodies are there. a number of passengers arrived in greece monday evening and many are still at sea waiting to be brought ashore for further treatment if needed. featerry will be towed to an italian port for a proper investigation into what went wrong. >> italian navy officials say 80 rescued were not on the passenger list. >> crews searching for air asia plate 8501 now searching for bodies in the sea. >> the loved ones learned the

fate watching television. we'll look at past safety issues in the region. >> we are on the front lines as kurdish forces defend northern iraq from falling back into the hands of isil. >> a you turn from a usually defiant lawmaker, why the only new york city republican in congress has decided to resign. >> $45 billion that is our big number of the day. >> how a chinese company is knocking uber off the list of most valuable startups.

>> today's big number is $45 billion. that's the new size of the most valuable tech startup in the world. it could be the biggest company you have never heard of. it sells inexpensive high quality phones in china. >> it just received $1.1 billion in new investments and with that money is now bigger than uber, which is valid at a mere $40 billion. >> it hopes to sell about 60 million cell phones in china alone next year. >> the crash of airasia flight

8501 caps off a disastrous year for malaysian carriers. >> there have been three high profile incidents close to 700 dead or missing. john henry smith with a closer look at air travel in that region. john. >> first let's focus on the country from which airasia flight 8501 took off indonesia. it has a checkered safety record of late. including airasia flight 8501, there has been one major flight incident in indonesia each year for three years and 13 accidents involving major carriers in the region since 2010. as for asia as a whole, four of the five air disasters with greatest losses of life since 2010 have involved asian airliners, that figure according to the independent aviation safety network. southeast asia has seen five major crashes this year alone. these accidents ever occurred during a time of surging demand for air travel in the region

since 2010 the number of passengers carried annually in the asia pacific region has jumped to 1 billion a 66% increase, that's more than europe and north america combined. according a the wall street journal, there aren't enough training programs in asia to produce enough qualified pilots to meet that demand. airlines have had to hire pilots from the u.s. and europe to if i am the gap. that has led to communication issues in the cockpit. the third problem is lower pay in asia for air traffic controllers, mechanics and regulators leading to lower safety standards. one more note about indonesian air travel, many of their airports lack wind shear detect equipment, probably not an issue in the airasia flight 8501 crash because it was at 30,000 feet and yet one more thing that makes indonesias air travel less safe. >> the rough weather suspected of playing a role in the downing

of flight 8501 has also taken its toll on malaysia, more than 200,000 families have been forced from their homes because of severe floods. some areas in the northeast have been cut off from electricity 10 have died. >> lets turn back to kevin our mean. >> walk us through what a monsoon is. >> it's the reversal of winds seasonally and can mean increased precipitation. in this part of the world in april through september the rain is up to the north most of indonesia would be very, very dry. but as this comes back to life here, we would see rain starting to move dawn here towards the south and he can see in this particular case, that is where we are going to be picking up that very heavy rain, the flooding, as well as most of the thunderstorms across that region, so it is normal this time of year, but we had some very intense -- >> there were a lot of other pilots and planes that were able

to fly through those winds. >> that's right. >> stay with us. in our next half hour, we go pack live and ever an update on the search and rescue efforts now or recovery efforts in the java sea. >> the u.s. military launched airstrikes against al shabab. the pentagon said the rate targeted a senior leader in somalia. it's not clear if he was killed. back in september a u.s. air strike killed a former al shabab leader. >> u.s. airstrikes are continuing today against isil targets in iraq and syria at the same time coalition backed iraqi and kurdish forces are involved in ground operations. we are with the peshmerga troops in northern iraq. >> on the front lines outside the city of kirkuk, contact between kurdish peshmerga pores and the islamic state of iraq and the levant is regular. they use sandbag protection. there is a fair amount of

incoming fire here. a short distance away, isil positions display their trademark black flag. >> the distance between us is very small. in some places, we are just 700 meters apart. they are always trying to push forward. >> so far the peshmerga lines have held, but isil fighters have been ryan relenting in their operation to take oil-rich kirkuk. the kurdish forces have had a adopt measures. >> fighting has a humanitarian impact. this road links kirkuk to towns and villages to its west. it is now totally closed. peshmerga forces had to do that to protect themselves from isil bombings. >> we've lost many men to isil car bombs. we've on occasion captured their spies around our positions. we have no intention to reopen this road. >> on the other side of the

blockade in a village isil controls, we saw a cue of stranded vehicles. these men say all they care about is that isil does not return to kirkuk. as far as they're concerned, it now belongs to them. control of kirkuk is a huge advantage to the kurdish forces. ordinary life in this city is far from normal. the operator of this restaurant says business is bad. >> i secured my restaurant, but it's a general insecurity and fighting keeping customers away. people are too afraid to venture out. >> kurdish peshmerga fighters entered kirkuk after the iraqi national army abandoned its port several months ago. in a country where history and past grievances play a key and

violent part of the present kirkuk represents a fault line. for now it remains family in the grip of the kurdish forces. >> muhammed is in erbil iraq this morning. you have spent time with kurdish forces. can they handle isil? >> so far they seem to be and they have been proving themselves to be the most formidable source against isil. not only have they be pushing them back, but have retaken some of the territory isil fighters took from them six or seven months ago. we've been with them and their very disciplined forces, however, they have a very big shortage of arms and ammunition, and this is one of the things

that have been really holding them back from pushing isil even further. >> what about the u.s. led airstrikes that we heard so much about here on this side of the atlantic. are they helping iraqi and kurdish forces in the fight? >> yes, they have been helpful and this is what mesh commanders have been telling us, that in the event they do not have enough weapons, they do not have enough ammunition, one commander told us that the newest gun he's been fighting with is from 25 years ago the iraq-iran war. he said the airstrikes have helped them take more territory from isil. >> muhammed from erbil, thank you and stay safe. >> we are still following the grim recovery in the java sea. officials are now confirming that wreckage found overnight is from the missing air asia plane.

>> devastated family members of being counseled at the airport. we will have an update after the break. >> an olive branch from the mayor's most powerful mayor to repair his relationship with the nypd. >> more protests on a the streets have los angeles after an autopsy report on a 25-year-old, what the medical examiner said about a shooting by police that sparked a night of demonstrations. >> a tiny town offering a college scholarship, but only if you come back. just one of the stories caught in our global net.

>> good morning, welcome to al jazeera america. ahead in this next half hour, a texas teen has been arrested for posting a photo of a police cruiser on line, but there's a twist to the story. plus this man the third most powerful republican in congress admits that he once spoke to a group of white supremacists.

he is defending that speech. >> an exploding a.t.m. why there isn't a lot of sympathy for the victim in this case. >> a look at our latest headlines, new details of the cyber attack on sony pictures. reuters said f.b.i. officials believe north korea hired hackers from another country to carry out the attack, but monday, the f.b.i. heard from cyber security firm norse. that company believes north korea was not involved and blames disgruntled sony employees. >> the dead lie fire on a ferry is being investigated, as to whether there were undocumented passengers on ship. more than 400 were rescued. people did die in the fire. >> indonesias officials confirm bodies found are from airasia flight 8501. the debris including an american exit door was discovered close to the plane's last known location.

investigators say they have seen what appears to be the shadow of the plane beneath the java sea. john has more. a lot has happened in the last few hours. >> it really has. since we first heard in the early morning hours about the bodies and debris found the indonesiaen navy has been work to go recover victims. they've retrieved at least 40 of them. those bodies will be taken to a facility at the airport in indonesia where the flight originated. relatives began weeping many carried out on stretcher. a special crisis center has been established ocean of the airport to accomodate the families. an airline is putting counselors and religious personnel on duty to help the grieving families. now as the search teams find more pieces of this plane, they will be taken to a location near the airport and of course now

attention turns to finding the plane's black box flight recorders. they are not black they're orange. if still in tact, they could provide information to investigators. they will almost certainly be in tact, they are almost in destructible including in the moments before the plane actually went down. the u.s.s. sampson is nearby from the fleet. >> we want to go to a aviation expert joining us from fort lauderdale. based on the facts the plane was hat a high altitude, the bodies found relatively intact. what early guesses and we should caution this is speculation but what do you think happened? >> there are one of two things that could have happened. they're flying in the high parts of the thunderstorm, which is not a good place to be, and there was a screen grab from

radar scopes that's been fleeting around that indicates it was at an abnormally slow speed in a climb. that's not a good combination at that altitude, and so there is a good possibility that it could have entered in what we call an aerodynamic stall, where the aircraft is actually too slow he to fly at that altitude and begins to lose altitude. so if that were the case, depending upon how they recovered or if they recovered that would have -- or if they were able to recover, i should put it that way that they would end up in this situation. we're looking at bad storms that can throw off hail, can have severe turbulence, and wind shifting in every which direction. that could be sufficient to cause damage to the aircraft where they couldn't recover. >> i just, you know, as a passenger who flies a lot, we are told that weather cannot bring down an hour craft so how common is it for this

aerodynamic stall situation that we could be talking about here, how common is that and how many pilots are trained to deal with it? >> every pilot is trained to deal with it. that's one of the first things that you're taught and it's a constant throughout any training cycle to practice the recovery of stalls. when a stall occurs at a high altitude like that, it's different from the lower altitudes, because the air is so much thinner, the aircraft is less responsive and the pilot has to be a lot more exacting in the recovery, but even if that were the case, you would expect that at some point during the descent, that the air would be thick enough and pilots able to fly out of it. we had that happen with the air france situation a couple of years ago off of the coast of brazil, and that aircraft went all the way into the ocean in an aerodynamic stall that they never recovered from. >> tell us from your standpoint

as a pilot are there airlines that are safer than others, are there regions that pilots say we don't like flying there we don't like flying on those planes, because they're not at experienced as they might be for instance in the united states or europe? >> you put me on the spot. i think that it is safe to say that we do have our preferences rewarding airlines. i can't tell you any off the top of my head that i would not fly on, but frankly the ones that have well-trained pilots and have very good safety records -- >> so you think a better pilot might not have had this same problem? >> it's conceivable certainly but on the other hand, if they had damage to that aircraft where it was unflyable then perhaps no one could ever flown out of that. >> thank you very much and stay with us. much more on this breaking news story, the continuing search

now, and it appears recovery efforts of airasia flight 8501 in our next hour. >> new york city's mayor bill deblasio trying to repair his fractured relationship with police, set to meet with their union leaders today. >> how crucial is this face-to-face meeting with the mayor? >> good morning to you. very crucial. some say the current relationship between city hall and city police is really near rock bottom. police and union officials blame him for creating a volatile environment that led to the murders of the two officers last week. through this meeting, he can start to convince everyone associated with the nypd that he fully supports the men and women in blue. >> thank you. new york city's mayor is set to sit down and talk it out with law enforcement today in hopes of calling a truce. the private meeting comes one day after the mayor was meed with boos and applause during

the graduation ceremony for nearly 900 new police officers. >> we are at a very difficult time in this country, in this city, in this department, but we will work through it, we always do, resolve our differences paean while we do that, we will keep this city safe. >> but the problem will not fix itself. some police fault deblasio for as they see it siding with protestors who demonstrated against new york's finest after a grand jury decision not to indict in the killing of eric garner. after the murder of two police officers this month, one union leader said the mayor has blood on his hands. >> he was so committed. >> at this weekend's funeral for one officer rafael ramos hundreds of officers turned their backs to the screen showing the mayor speaking. tensions are mounting for the mayor to apologize. >> mayor please apologize to them for having created a false

impression of them. you did create a false impression. say you're sorry say you didn't realize. >> a simple apology may not be enough to heal the wrist. hours after the graduation, the benevolent association said the mayor needs to humble himself. >> despite the rocky relationship the commissioner still stands by his boss's side. >> this is a mayor that cares deeply about new york city police officers, cares deeply about the divide in the city at this time and is working very hard to heal that divide. >> the commissioner will be at the mayor's side today, as well. while there's no word on whether officers plan to turn their backs on the mayor again during the funeral for the other slain officer on sunday, the commissioner has been quite clear it's not the appropriate venue for political statements. >> thank you. >> police in texas say they have arrested a teen that they say

made a threat against a law enforcement officer. the 17-year-old post add photo pointing a pellet gun as a parked police cruiser. in the option, he tweeted should i do it? someone saw that photo, took a screen shot and submitted it to the police department. >> the lapd insist the investigation is not over concerning a young black men shot and killed by officers. protestors taking tole streets monday hours after the lapd released an autopsy report on ford's death. his family and activists have demanded answers ever since he was killed in august. >> it's been more than four months since los angeles police officers killed ford, and now for the first time, details about the 25-year-old man's wounds have been made public. the autopsy report shows three shots hit fort, one in the right arm and one in the right side. the other hit ford on the side

of his back, fired so close it left a muzzle imprint on his skin. that fits with the lapd's version of events, a scuffle that led to fort's trying to grab an officer's gun. a second officer then fired two shots at ford, while the officer on the ground under ford reached around the mentally ill man with a backup weapon and fired into his back at point-blank range. >> there is nothing in the coroners report that is inconsistent with the statements given to us by the officers. >> at least one witness reportedly disputes that account, and how the fate allen counter began remains murky. place say ford was walking home when the two officers stopped to talk to him. >> according to the officers, they observed him make movements that then rewarded as suspicious. >> at that point police say ford tackled one officer. the lapd says it is still looking for witnesses and that the autopsy results were held

back out of concern that releasing them could have tainted testimony. the lapd, the city's inspector general and district attorney are all conducting separate inquiries as to whether the death violated force appealses. the investigation is said to be far from over. >> let the system work, we will find out the truth of what happened on that august night. >> ford's family filed a $75 million wrongful death lawsuit against the lapd. >> embattled new york city congressman michael grimm calling it quits expected to resign before congress queens next week. it comes after he pleaded guilty to tax evasion under reporting more than a million dollars in wages and receipts. he'll be sentenced in june. it's unclear fell get jail time. >> in washington, house majority

whip is under fire today the number three republican in the house admitted that he did address a gathering of white supremacists. he made the speech in 2002 at a convention for the european american unity and rights organization, that group classified as a hate group. >> 2014 will go down as a water shed year in the history of same-sex marriage. >> most states allow it. we look back at just however gay rights have come. >> bonnie and lynn never expected their relationship to be part of a battle that would go to the supreme court. >> i feel like rosa parks, you know. we need to get rid of discrimination. >> the two have been together more than 13 years but a ban on same sex marriage in indiana prevented them taking that you are vows. >> i live in indiana my entire

life and don't plan on moving. that's why we're fighting this battle. i don't want to leave the state of indiana. i love the stunned, even though they might not love who i am. >> last year, bonnie went to the hospital. lynn was prevented from entering her room in intensive care because they weren't married. >> it was the most awful feeling in the whole entire world that i was totally helpless and i actually broke all my knuckles open pounding on the door so hard and they finally let me in. >> the two were part of the landmark lawsuit bass skin versus bogan challenging indiana's ban on same-sex marriage and won. >> possibly the most important thing to say about the intersection of the judiciary and same-sex marriage is that the pace of change has just been extraordinary compared to other social movements of the 20th 20th century. >> you are joined in marriage as wife and wife. >> that change has been evident this year with a series of

federal court decisions that struck down same-sex marriage bans in several states. in october the u.s. supreme court declined to intervene. most likely, argue experts because there was no real dispute. same sex pro opponents had won every case up to that point. >> a major criterion for a court a take a case is when the lower courts are split. right now, there is no disagreement in favor of the idea, the correct idea that our constitution requires marriage quality for gay and lesbian couples. >> that change is evident in public opinion cutting across party lines. according to a pugh research center poll, 54% of the public favors legal marriage. ropes under 30 favor same-sex marriage. the decision by the u.s. supreme court not to hear cases like that in indiana defaulted to the lower court decision to allow

couples to marry. >> i'm so blessed not only just to be with bonnie being legally married to her but we've got our wedding united states today courts legislators and voters in 35 states and the district of columbia allow same sex couples to marriage. other states ban the practice. >> proponents say these are bittersweet victories because there are still places same sex couples cannot marry. these fathers of two sued kentucky and its governor seeking marriage rights. they lost. on appeal, their case could be among several that may finally be heard by the u.s. supreme court. >> when we started this a year and a half aing, we certainly didn't think we would be a case going to the supreme court. we thought that would be played out long before us. there were so many other states in the queue before us and we thought this is going to get

settled before kentucky makes it to the supreme court and sure enough all the other circuits ruled in favor of marriage equality kept here in the sixth circuit. >> it was here they lost their appeal, bans were upheld in four states kentucky, michigan, ohio and tennessee. there is mounting pressure to finally weigh in on the supreme court and this case could set the stage for a national same sex marriage law. >> if we do end up being part of that case that goes, we are not going to be able to hide, but we're prepared for that. we will be ready. >> that could happen soon, after justices take up those cases at their next conference in early january. al jazeera. >> if the supreme court decides to take one of those cases it could issue a decision on gay marriage by this summer. >> ahead in our special series on the border, we'll show you one family's struggle just to get to this country, a father and daughter living in a mexican shelter with hopes of living the

american dream. >> what did you shoot mr. president? wow, all right! [ laughter ] >> a unique apology from the commander in chief the president's golf game caused chaos for one couple's wedding.

>> time now for one of today's discoveries. this is an ancient ship wreck being excavated in china. >> it sank almost 1,000 years ago in the south cline in a sea but was moved to a museum last year. archeologists uncovered relics. that is gorgeous! they revealed the shape of the vessel at this point. >> the number of children crossing the u.s.-mexican border is down 40% from last year, but many are trying to escape

violence and poverty for hopes of a better life. >> some are stuck in their voyage through mexico. >> we crossed the border into mexico with one question, is the immigration crisis over. we found that while the number of young central american migrants is down, families continue to approach the border in hopes of an opportunity to cross. the increased border security, though, is making many of these families think twice. >> this is the river he tells his 6-year-old as they stand on the mexican bank of the rio grande. what do you see over there? that's the united states, he tells here. >> why don't we cross right now she asks?

the two are staying at a shelter for migrants just across the river from texas. last summer, motor migrants here were from central america. while they still are the majority of may go grants arrested at the border, on this day, most people at the shelter are mexicans. the pair have been here for 10 days journeys from their home in mexico city where he washed cars. >> we were homeless, he says. we couldn't pay rent. with nowhere else to turn, the if i have 9-year-old single father took to the road and headed north. >> on one hand, he'd like to cross. he wants his daughter to study in the u.s. and learn english. on the other hand, he's scared. he doesn't want to put his daughter in danger and doesn't have the money to hire a human smuggler, so he's convicted and he waits hoping to find a job as he he considers his options. the shelter's atmosphere is

different from the summer. this used to be a launching point for young may go grants on the verge of a fearful adventure with that now it's a dead end for older men and young women who's hope can take them no further than this place. 20-year-old rosa didn't want us to use her real name or show her face. she was 16 where she crossed alone into texas, where she worked as a live-in nanny for four years. during that time, she had her son. immigration officers raided the restaurant where she worked a second job. she first deported five months before president obama announced he would give parents of u.s. citizens temporary permission to stay. >> your son is a u.s. citizen. >> yeah. >> i hope there's still a way even though i'm in mexico, she says. i have my son. i just want him to have a chance. >> so she'll wait, longing for a land that's steps away, but

still unreachable. >> what happens to the migrants who do take the risk and cross? we're finding that it's family not from mexico but from central america who continue to cross at peak numbers. border control continues to arrest 108 families on average a day in the texas rio grande valley. more on that in part two of our border series, later this evening. >> thank you very much. let's go to douglas gibs, a radio host who helped organize anti immigration protests over the summer in california. thanks for being with us. do you feel like you make a difference? >> i feel we did make a difference and i think president obama addressed the issue sooner than he wanted to because of that protest. >> based on that and his executive action, which some critics decried and yet hispanics say deportations are

up, do you praise the president for are what he did or condemn him? >> no, i condemn him for it. the laws on the books the immigration laws were there to protect the population from disease, from a criminal element and from a terrorist element. by them not being screened -- >> made its way across the border? >> i'm sorry. >> has there ban terrorist that's made its way across the border? >> according to reports, one in three people who cross are of middle eastern descent. >> i want to ask you this question and i've looked to see if there is anything to back that up, because we haven't heard of those statistics here at aljazeera america, but one of the questions that keeps being asked is are you as concerned about the canadian border, then, which a lot of people would argue is just as porous as the mexican border and illegals and possibly terrorists crossing there as you are about the

mexican border and is this an anti hispanic thing or an immigration thing? >> well, sure, the northern border is a concern for national security reasons. the southern border is not just national security reasons but also health concerns. part of the reason i participated in that protest was because four weeks before the protest, my granddaughter had come down with hand, foot and mouth disease not common in our area and the increase of cases correlated with the increase of immigrants coming into the area. >> again i ask the question, is this an anti immigration thing or anti hispanic thing. >> it's neither. i'm pro immigration. my wife was born in mexico, came here legally. what i am concerned about is the screening process not being used. >> ultimately, yes or no, was this a good year or bad year when it came to immigration and the controversy. >> i think it was a good year, because more attention has been brought to it, more people now

are involved on both sides of the issue and are voicing their opinion. >> doug gibbs joining us again thank you for being on the program. i get a feeling this debate is going nowhere anywhere fast. >> let's look at lighter fare. a small town in maine in desperate need of a plumber. if a pipe freezes, a drain clogs, the near effort plumber is 50 miles away. the town is offering a $2,000 scholarship to anyone willing to become a certified plumber. still no takers. >> but they would make some good money. >> in hawaii, two u.s. army captains were set to try the knot when forced to rearrange their wedding. the ceremony was going to take place on a marine course golf course but they had to move the wedding because the president was playing through. he he phoned them and apologized. >> i feel terrible, nobody told

us. >> we just went right above the 16th pole, so we were watching you golf. [ laughter ] >> that must have been kind of painful. [ laughter ] >> clearly they were not bothered, in fact they called it a blessing in disguise. they got married on a different part of the golf course that was just as beautiful. >> he didn't cry fore, he he simply said air force one. >> we are looking at low temperatures compared to yesterday morning far go minus five degrees. the wind chills, we are so much colder and almost hitting minus 29 with the wind chill so very dangerous situation here. we do expect that to rise. if you are out and about in temperatures like this, we could expect to have serious frostbite in that region, so we are looking at temperatures finally coming back up. >> ok, kevin, thank you. >> ahead in the next hour, the very latest on that air asia

disaster. the investigation has entered the recovery phase. >> we are back in just two minutes with more al jazeera.

>> tragic discovery air asia confirming that debris is from airasia flight 8501. now begins the grim task recovering bodies. >> tracking planes in the sky how was another able to disappear and then wind up lost for days? >> showdown over a peace proposal, palestinian leaders offer up a draft resolution at the united nation to say create a palestinian state.

why the u.s. isn't happy with the plan. >> very interested in solving a problem as opposed to simply stewing in the hopelessness of race relations in this country. >> president obama weighing in on the state of race relations in the u.s. following several high profile cases involving deadly force by police. >> good morning and welcome to al jazeera america. i'm stephanie sy. >> i'm del walters. after days of searching, now crews are recovering debris and bodies from airasia flight 8501. they were found in the java sea. along with the debris, officials may have spotted the plane's shadow underwater. >> relatives of those onboard break down when they hear the news a lot of them watched the news on television. they had gathered at a crisis center at the airport in indonesia where the flight originated. victims' bodies will be sent to that airport for identification as they are recovered. john joins us now. obviously a very difficult time for those families. >> it's impossible to know what

they're going through this is an extraordinary experience and unfortunately doesn't happen that often but when it does like this, it's very, very bad. now this debris is being found from airasia flight 8501. we know that, confirmed in the past hour. an indonesian navy vessel is recovering bodies, at least 40 have been picked up close to the plane's last known location in the java sea. >> this video shows debris retrieved from the sea today. it's being flown from the waters off the island of born yo. teams have been frantically looking for the jet that disappeared sunday with 162 people onboard. families of passengers broke down in tears when they heard the grief evident on their

faces. some were so devastated they had to be carried out on stretchers. at least 30 ships, if you know hour craft and seven helicopters from several countries have been looking for the airasia flight 8501. the u.s. navy destroyer was heading to the region to help with the search. the flight took off at 5:35 local time sunday morning head forego singapore. the plane was flying at 32,000 feet, but asked to climb to 38,000 feet to avoid bad weather. 42 minutes later the plane dropped off radar. there was no distress call. this is the first crash for arab asia. >> they have a good safety record. we all know when it comes to industries like aviation, that just because you have a good safety record that doesn't mean you're immune to events like this. >> indonesia's president held a news conference saying that he shared the feelings of the

relatives of those lost in the accident and urged them to stay strong in the face of what he called "this difficult moment." >> scott is at the airport in indonesia where the grim task of recovering more bodies and wreckage is being coordinated. >> it's a 24 hour operation now now that they know where they need to look, are able to focus specifically on that area, about 1,000 kilometers from the airport where this aircraft took off and 10 kilometers from where it dropped off communication with the tower. they are able to focus on that. we know there are at least two indonesias navy vessels there special forces help to go retrieve the bodies. we can confirm that there are at least six taken from the water probably more. those will all then be coming here to the airport. there's going to be a facility or couple facility's where these bodies will be brought in for

identification. how long will this take? we're hearing they expect, hoping probably more than expecting that the retrieval will be completed by wednesday. >> the city will play an important role in the investigation. debris from the plane will be brought to a facility to investigators can figure out what brought down airasia flight 8501. >> libby casey is live in washington d.c. tell us about the latest on u.s. efforts to as in assist in this recovery. >> the u.s.s. sampson he equipped with sonar is on the scene. it arrived this morning ready to help about search and rescue or wrench sentenced recovery efforts. another vessel, the u.s.s. fort worth is preparing to deploy and could be ready to help in just a day or two. the u.s. is readying aircraft to

help search the debris he field and the navy could help with salvage capabilities. they do have the ability to do that but they have not been called on at this hour to help out in that way. there have not been requests at this point to help search for the black box as follows or pings, but that's another way that u.s. forces could assist. >> u.v. law enforcement and security officials have been looking at the portage and crew lift. are we gasoline any new information out of that? >> not at this point. nothing new to report. officials say nothing significant has turned up, and that in itself certainly was newsworthy this week. at this point it's being considered an unexplained accident. >> the roll of the state department, what are they playing -- a role. >> this effort is being coordinated through indonesias officials and authorities but

all the u.s. efforts are being channel would through the state department and the key is the embassies and embassy staff on the ground. the u.s. embassy in jakarta is taking he had lead in all those coordination efforts and even as we he hear from the pentagon about what the navy is doing and destroyers sent to help out that is the communication area. >> the indonesias authorities confirm this is definitely the wreckage from this plane. dozens of bodies have been recovered. >> i think the issue is that people are waking up again and saying there has been another incident and another incident involving an indonesian plane and that has a lot of people very concerned very worried about is this the part of the world that i want to fly in, how safe are the planes that are flying out of there. >> when you look back at the two other malaysian airlines incidents, of course, they are very different, and so i want to

bring in jay rollins again a former american airlines pilot and aviation expert joining us from fort lauderdale this morning. let's talk about that, jay and thank you for staying with us. we talk about the safety record in that part of the world. should web asking those questions this morning based on the facts we know so far? i suppose that we should. in addition to what we've been talking about i teach this very thing in an instrument course that i teach here locally in the south florida area, and we get a lot of crews that are coming from that part of the world. i think they are aware that there's an issue going on here, and we haven't gotten to the bottom of it. i think that there needs to be a lot more attention to hands-on flying that you can get so

caught up in the complexity of the auto pilot system, the and i i haveand ihave i don't knowics you spend your time doing that instead of clicking it off and flying it just like a small light aircraft. here in the united states, we have a lot of area where pilots can go up and just go have fun with the aircraft and learn to fly it seat of the pants as we call it. that can be very valuable in cases like this. this is what went wrong in the crash in san francisco. i'm hoping that's not the situation here. it could very well be a mechanical problem that made it unfly screwball this is a commercial airliner that we are talking about. should there be international standards when it comes to

pilots. if in this case, the pilot and his decision-making was a factor? >> there are international standards to the extent that the f.a.a. and european authorities set rules and requirements for pilot training. again, i don't want to assume that that's what happened here, but we are starting to see a trend if that that is the case, we do have very strict standards. i just think that sometimes that a tweak here and there maybe required especially in a circumstance where countries are not giving enough attention to hands-on flying. >> this is all based on the speculation that you and i have been talking about in the last hour about the possibility of a stall, and that is based on some of the radar evidence that has leaked out. give us a time line. at what point would you expect us to hear preliminary conclusions from an investigation? >> i think we may hear something

fairly soon. it looks like they're talking about there's a shadow under the water that suggests that that is the large bulk of the aircraft, they should be able to retrieve the black boxes so-called black boxes, and once they have their hands on those two devices we'll get a complete story of what happened, has order that things happened, and what was done to correct the problem whatever it was. >> thank you so much for your expertise this morning sir. >> you bet. >> the u.s. military stepping up efforts to stop al shabab in africa, the u.s. airstrikes targeted the group's leader. still unclear whether that leader was killed. back in cemented a u.s. air strike killed the former al shabab leader. >> isil this morning taking responsibility for an overnight suicide attack in baghdad, two killed in a funeral as u.s.

airstrikes continue in iraq and syria. the coalition backed u.s. and kurdish forces are involved in fighting there. >> kurdish peshmerga fighters are first proving themselves to be the motor formidable force against isil forces. they've been retaking territory and also have held their lines in many parts of northern iraq. they are motivated perhaps by the feeling that in fighting isil, their dream of getting their own home land is close however, they do have a shortage of arms. one of the peshmerga commanders here in northern iraq told us that the newest gun his forces were fighting with was from 25 years ago the iraq-iran war. they also have shortage of only anything else, however, they have been able to hold isil unmany of their front lines.

one of the things that any peshmerga commander will tell you is that the airstrikes by the coalition led by the u.s. has been very helpful and that in the absence of them having enough weapons, the airstrikes have done the difference and that is how they've been able to retake most territory from isil. >> the u.s. is now start to go train and arm sunni tribal fighters to be part of the guard fighting for iraq. >> a deadly fire on the adriatic sea, 10 were killed aboard the ship traveling from freese. hundreds were rescued. italian authorities want to know if there were people onboard that were not on the apparently list. eighty rescued were not on the list. >> this massive fire in pakistan mall took firefighters hours to put the blaze out in lahore. it followed another fire one day

earlier. firefighters said they needed 10 hours to douse the flames that happened at a timber market. >> back here in the u.s., bitterly cold weather. it will hid traditionally warmer spots. >> tell me about it. we walked out the door and winter said hello again. >> absolutely. where we're talking about is las vegas, believe it or not snow in las vegas a very rare event. we had this little built of turn in the atmosphere right here through parts of nevada. with that, we also had this cold pool of air that's moving south. you could already see the snow in the northern part of nevada right now. let me show you the forecast map for tomorrow. you can see to southern nevada, areas of white even the blue. i think to the north of las vegas, we could be seeing two to three inches of snow. this is rare. from 1937, we've only had 15 major snow events in this area, so it is a rare event.

towards thursday, it's not going to last, the snow is going to push towards the east. they'll be clearing up, but the cold air is going to be staying in place. you can see overnight lows, 29 degrees on thursday, 31 on friday. really not getting out of the mid 40's, so it's definitely not pool weather. it's definitely casino weather if you're in las vegas so you don't have to bring your bathing suits. >> colder than new york, that's weird. >> we are monitoring the latest in the crash of airasia flight 8501. it's just the latest tragic event from a malaysian carrier. john henry smith will look at the air travel dangers that have plagued that region for years. >> a long time krstic of russian president vladimir putin learning his fate in a fraud case. the political reasons he is not going to jail. >> one manned attempt to break into an a.t.m. back fires.

that video and others captured by our citizen journalists.

>> this is where waters washed away a range. >> a volcano keeping residents on their toes supplying gas steam and ash. there were more than 80 reputations, similar to this one. >> one man's attempt to rob an a.t.m. not going as hoped. i'm laughing, holding up a flame to the machine before it explodes, police say the man only last his sandals in the blast. he he tried to do exactly the same thing last week. >> this morning indonesian officials are working to retrieve bodies found in the java sea. they have confirmed wreckage found off the coast of born know riled is from airasia flight 8501. the debris including an emergency exit door was

discovered close to the last known location of the plane and they have seen what appears to be the shadow of the plane beneath the water. the crash of this jet just the latest in trouble a disaster year for malaysian air carriers. >> we checked three high profile incidents leaving close to 700 people dead or missing. there are issues that extend to carriers in all of southeast asia. >> absolutely right del. the well documented safety issues of the region come down to two words, supply and dehe hand including airasia flight 8501, there have been one incident each year for the past three years. there have been 13 accidents involving major carriers since 2010. overall, four of the five air disasters with greatest losses of life since 2010 have involved asian airlines. southeast asia has seen five major crashes this year alone. these accidents have occurred during a time of surging demand

for air travel in the region since 2010. the number of passengers carried annually in the asia pacific region jumped to 1 billion a 66% increase. that's more than europe and north america combined. experts estimate there are 1600 passenger jets in southeast asia with another 1600 on order, more than any other region in the world. each plane needs at least 10 trained pilots, according to a wall street journal report. there aren't enough training programs in asia to produce enough qualified pilots, leading to a second problem asian airlines have hired pilots from the u.s. and europe to if i am the gap, leading to communication issues in the cockpit. a third problem is lower pay in asia for air traffic controllers, mechanics and regulators, leading to lower safety standards. the surging demand has outpaid the infrainstruct tour handle the increased traffic.

many airports in indonesia lack wind shear detection equipment despite the fact that experts estimate 30% ever all accidents are weather-related. >> singapore airlines has one of the safest track records of all airlines around the world. >> weather has been playing a major roam in the search and also perhaps the accident itself. >> absolutely, and also the currents in the water now that we know where the crash location is, it's definitely going to help in determining and pinpointing where we need to go in terms of the weather about that this was the last position recorded on the radar. they have picked up debris down here towards the southeast and that is because of the currents that are moving down here towards the southeast and that is going to continue, so more debris will probably move down here as we go towards the next couple of days. as you can see here on google earth, here is a still of the

rain showers. we are talking about the monsoon season right now but if we put the last 24 hours into motion, in the java sea, you can see thunderstorms popping up. with these con investigative thunderstorms in the monsoon we never know exactly which location they will pop up, because this whole area is very unstable. you have very warm water rising, causing these thunderstorms to develop, but since we know the location, of course, that's going to be to our advantage in dealing with the weather and getting around the weather, as well. we'll be watching this very carefully. we haven't seen those thunderstorms as big as this weekend, but we're still going to be dealing with weather. >> thank you very much. >> a top opponent of russian president vladimir putin has avoided jail. he was given a suspended sentence. >> it is a small victory for the man who has been a thorn in the side of russia's leaders. >> alexei is to many the face of

russian opposition. he's been one of the most vocal opponents of russian president vladimir putin famous for calling the ruling party a bunch of crooks and thieves. in july of last year, he was jailed by a court 1,000 kilometers northeast of moscow, found guilty of embezzling more than half a million u.s. dollars. the allegations involve a state-owned timber company and dates back to when he was advising the local governor. he was given a five year suspended sentence. some political observers at the time warned that jail him would create a russian mandela boosting his popularity and his profile. unseptember last year, he ran for mayor of moscow. during his campaign, he attacked corruption among the allies of president putin. >> every family in russia has the right to $50,000. where has this money gone? what have the ordinary families

got from russia's natural wealth? >> did he say spite various smears on state television and a small campaign, he was able to win support among voters, gaining around a third of the vote. in february, his political ambitions came to an abrupt end when he was placed under house arrest. he can only leave his flat when the police drive him here to his court case hearing. his wife and his brother are always by his side. throughout his trial he's remained defiant. >> they have laid their hands on everything in russia will sooner or later fall. >> the kremlin denies influencing the judiciary, but he blames the political establishment for attempt to go silence him. if it has been trying to keep him quiet it's clearly not

worked. in just a few years this young anti corruption blogger has become one of the biggest challenges to president putin's grip on power. >> prosecutors had demanded 10 years in prison for alexei and eight years for his brother. although both were found guilty of embezzlement, only his younger brother will be jailed. >> doctors in scotland this morning treating a british health care worker for ebola the first case of the virus diagnosed in the u.k., the worker just coming back from help to go treat ebola patients in sierra leone. nearly 700 health care workers have contracted the virus, 366 have died. >> sierra leone has been hit particularly hard by the outbreak, the country now has nearly half of the 20,000 known ebola cases in west africa. in just the week leading up to christmas, there were 315 new cases diagnosed in that country. more than 7800 people have died from the virus to date. >> the search for that missing

air asia jet taking a grim turn opinion the latest discovery of bodies and pieces of wreckage in the java sea he. >> a renewed focus tracking aircraft in what u.s. transportation officials call on outdated system. >> forcing israel out of the palestinian territories but could that plan ease tensions in the region?

>> welcome back to aljazeera america. ahead in this next half hour, the controversy over "the interview" forcing sony to stream it on line, maybe paverring the way for studios to make money. >> president obama speaking out about the state of race relations in the u.s. >> indonesias officials and air asia confirming debris and bodies are from flight airasia flight 8501, found not far from the plane's final known

location. investigators say the shadow of the many can be seen under sea. bodies will be transported to be identified. this is the third time a malaysian jet has been lost alone just this year, the incident leaving unanswered questions, one of them is how can an airplane go missing in this day and age. we go to libby casey for the answer to that question. a lot of people wanting to know are tracking systems not as advanced as we expect them to be? >> it's especially challenging over open water but more sophisticated tracking and communication technology does exist, however putting it into place across the entire airline industry is an expensive and bureaucratic prospect, even at a time when people expect technology to be cutting edge. >> in an age when g.p.s. can precisely track your car location and you can view your house through on line mapping the acting head of the ntsb

admits aviation tracking seems old fashioned. >> against this backdrop of information flow when a flight cannot be located the public asks how can they loose an spire airplane. >> tracking technology is complicated. >> introducing technology on an aircraft or into a navigation system requires forethought and caution. >> in october the ntsb gathered together aviation experts to brainstorm better ways to track planes. it was the first such conference in 15 years a time during which technology made major advancements. updated satellite tracking of planes in the air instead of relying on towers, imprinting a plane's location on any message sent from the cockpit extending the voice recording to 20 hours up from only one or two hours. increasing the battery life of the black box pinger, and some

aviation experts say the best way to find out what's happening on a plane stream owl of the black box data during the flight so its valuable information doesn't go down with the plane. >> there's no reason with technology today that we can't have streaming data. it shows to me he a complete lack of what it takes to do an underwater search. the difference between knowing whether the plane was airborne for one minute and two minutes is a difference of searching for a week or a month and a half. >> planes crashing on land are usually easy to locate. it's the planes that disappear over ocean that pose the biggest problems. there's been no sign of malaysian airlines flight 370 which disappeared last marsh and believed to be in the indian ocean. it took two years to find an air france box that crashed in 2009. experts say that could be avoided with improvements in

technology. >> recommendations may not be enough. experts say it may take regulations in order to get an airline industry to upgrade to costly changes. >> thank you very much. >> we are near the airport where families have been waiting for news about the fate of their loved ones. just describe for us the moment when word came in that bodies had been found and how families found out. >> we're right at the airport and terminal two where the aircraft took off. i'm on the outside of terminal two. there is a facility turned into a crisis center where the families had a private area where they were briefed over the last three days by government officials, search and rescue officials, the c.e.o. of air

asia, they are all briefed in there and that is where they got this horrible news earlier today on tuesday. it was a nationally televised press conference where the head of the search and rescue operation is based. they were watch you go it while the rest of the country was watching it and obviously it was very, very emotional. they've been here, we've been here for three days. they come off buses come through vehicles, out of vehicles and through kind of this walk way behind me. these tents are set up one for press conferences behind that is for family members, they go out every morning and they would get briefings and get the information before we would but we can see in there and obviously that was a very dramatic scene when the calls came out that they found bodies and debris from the aircraft earlier today. >> the president of indonesia was at the airport. what did he have to say? >> he was here.

he just left. he he came in, he through from jakarta and on his way they're flew over the area where they found the bodies and debris. we spoke to with one of his staff. he he said it was quite amazing this they flew very low to that sea level of the area they found this debris and the bodies, then they came here. he went and immediately spoke with the family, came came out spoke to the media saying he was operating for the families, that this has impacted the entire country. he thanked the wrench andreas do you operations, thanked the other nations for as sets and personnel to help find the aircraft. he then went back in with the family, spoke with them, spent more time with them and then departed the airport within the last hour, so very emotional time, and actually, tony c.e.o. of air asia went in and he also

came out, as well. >> it is already evening there what happens now with the search and recovery effort, does that continue through the night there? >> absolutely, it will continue. the retrieval of bodies is going to take time. it's not too deep in the water but it's going to take time, eggs per tees and special equipment. right now, there are at least two ships indonesian navy vessels there, special forces there, they've been in the water, retrieving bodies. that's going to take time, but also really digging through the wreckage that's beneath the water is going to take some time, as well, but they're convinced that this is going to probably wrap up when it comes to retrieving bodies, the end of day wednesday, but the on going process for getting the debris out is going to take time. >> scott thanks. >> let's go to allen who joins

us a former ntsb investigator and author. he is in albuquerque this morning. thanks for being with us. a lot of new information coming out. your thoughts on where the investigation is heading and a possible cause. >> obviously, the first thing is to try to recover the human remains and locate the recorders. they'll do that simultaneously. that's a grizzly business in retrieving receipt mains, of course hopefully the recorder, sounds like the aircraft maybe intact, there's been reports that some of this can be seen from the surface of the water. those may not pan out but if that's true, it should be just a matter of hours or a day or two at the most until they get the recorders and get them to a lab. >> that being said, the bodies being recovered relatively

intact a understand not wearing life preservers, what does that tell you and how much time pilots had to try and correct things? >> well, you know, the location of the wreckage is interesting. the fact that the bodies are intact, at least the ones they are finding so far suggest that this was probably not an in-flight breakup. that's not absolutely sure but generally speaking when you find whole bodies, that indicates perhaps water impact or perhaps even a controlled dutching, but we'll have to wait and see. >> our meteorologist reporting that weather conditions there include six-foot waves and strong winds making it very challenging for searchers. what technology is there in that region to recover the bodies and parts of the plane? >> there's an awful lot of assets available. the united states navy has three

or four debris recovering ships that are routinely used to recover helicopters and aircraft that go into the water. i don't know in a the indonesians have requested that from the u.s. navy, but there will be adequate assets. there may be a traffic problem as these vessels converge on the scene. they'll probably use helicopters to spot the individual pieces of floating debris, et cetera, but like you say high winds and waivers make that difficult. >> there seems to be a new narrative emerging, that is that there might be a sliding scale when it comes to safety of airlines across the world. is that the case, and if so, from a passenger standpoint, should we know that and should there be some type of grading system to let passengers know which airlines are safer than others? >> the problem is that these accidents are so infrequent, that the statistics, it's very

difficult to do much interpretation when you have so few accidents. there's been a lot of high visibility accidents, not a lot but several high visibility accidents this year. we're talking about 3 billion people boarding aircraft a year, so that the numbers are very small, but yes, they do report these at rates bowing for years reported the rates of different types of aircraft chewedding their own. these numbers of known and certainly the public is entitled to be, but i'm not sure that there really is a sliding scale. there shouldn't be. we know certain parts of the world, like the former soviet union and africa have much higher accident rates than the rest of the world but i don't think -- surely there's no international consensus that there should be a sliding scale. everybody wants to pursue a 0-accident agenda and we've almost reached that in airline

flying in the united states. >> one final question before we let you go, where does this investigation now go? will they put the plane back together to figure out what happened? >> getting the recorders will tell an awful lot. my gut feeling is that they will try to recover all the wreckage. it sounds like it's in fairly shallow water which means it would be relatively easy to recover the wreckage, do a reconstruction of the wreckage, but the recorders are going to be the key things and hopefully they'll have those in days and have them read within several days at the outset and the indonesias hopefully will release that information to the world. >> thanks for being with us this morning joining us via skype from new mexico he. >> the u.s. and israel are expressing strong on that pigs to a palestinian proposal before the united states. >> it sets a time line for peace with israel but has conditions. >> the u.n. security council

could vote on it today. a veto would quickly follow, many say. >> palestinians are taking their bid for statehood to the united nations. >> this authority was born to take palestinians from occupation to independence. >> it calls for an end to israeli occupation of palestinian territories by 2016. it has the backing of the palestinian arab neighbors. >> they are ok with it. >> even if it does muster the required yes votes the united states israel's closest ally is expected to use its veto power to defeat the resolution. >> we don't think this is constructive. we think it sets arbitrary deadlines for reaching a peace agreement and for israel's withdrawal from the west bank. >> israel prime minister benjamin netanyahu spoke out against the proposal. >> the u.s. is promoting a one-sided palestinian proposal to try and pass a resolution at

the security council to impose on us an agreement which will create a hamas stand jeopardizing our existence. >> the 50 day war this summer left gas in ruins and left tens of thousands of palestinians homeless. efforts to rebuild have been slow. just yesterday ministers arrived in gaza to kickstart reconstruction talks. desperate gasses are counting on more than rhetoric. they need building supplies and those are hard to come by. israel keeps a tight hold on construction materials to make sure they are not used for military purposes by hamas. the international community pledged $5 billion to help rebuild back in october. palestinians are still waiting on those promises to be fulfilled. >> joining us now is an aljazeera america international affairs contributor mr. cole, good to see you. i want to get to gaza, but first

this resolution. here you ever the palestinians trying to find a legal way to get statehood a political solution instead of the violence we've seen from hamas. why won't the u.s. let this pass? >> the resolution is actually quite reasonable. it says that these negotiations over palestinian statehood have gone on for a very long time. in the meanwhile israel that continued to take away palestinian territory in the west bank and that there should be an end to this process in 2017. the israelis and the united states fear that simply setting a deadline without coming to an agreement on security issues would leave israeli vulnerable to a palestinian state. >> after the war in the summer in which thousands of civilian lives were lost, should the u.s.

ever tried to restart talks between the sides? >> the united states pursued talks between the two sides all through last year, and those crashed and burned in april. it seems clear that the israeli government that the president is in power it's going to reelections. that government was not interested in a final status negotiation -- he. >> as you know, the israelis are holding new elections soon. could that change the game? >> yes. i mean, the prime minister benjamin netanyahu has been up and down the polls but at the low only 26%. his opposition is uniting into a kind of center left coalition. it's not completely impossible that you could have a different configuration of the israeli government this spring. >> who would be more likely to

win an election in israeli right now, a center left party or one more conservative than the prime ministers? they are running neck and neck, so it would depend on the other small parties which sides they took in building a coalition and so, you can't rule out that you would have a government this spring which might be more favorable toward negotiations. >> meanwhile gaza is in even more dire straits, the words of a special envoy there a new report found despite the $5.4 billion in international pledges, just 287 truckloads of rebuilding supplies entered gas in november. more than 100,000 homes were destroyed during the fighting. i guess my question to you because it is said at this rate, reconstruction could take decades, who should be responsible for rebuilding gaza?

>> the israelis simply aren't letting the building materials in and it's illegal in international law with that israeli is recognized by international bodies as the occupying authority in gaza, and you can't blockade your own occupied population, and so what the israelis are doing is illegal. moreover, they don't allow the palestinians in gaza to export most of what they make or produce. they have severe restrictions on their economic activities. the gazes could rebuild themselves if the palestinians in gaza were simply allowed to have an ordinary export economy. the israelis have put these sanctions on occupied gaza as punishment for the people in gaza having voted in 2006 for hamas, but half the population in gaza are children, and most

of them weren't born in 2006, so it's not fire punish the entire population this way. >> aljazeera america international affairs director, thank you. >> "the interview" comedy tallying more than 2 million legal downloads. sony's choice to go digital could revolutionize hollywood. >> sony's big budget movie was banned by ruffly 300 u.s. theaters. >> what? >> so the company released the flick on line through you tube, google play, x box live, itunes and the company website. around 2 million people paled anywhere from $5.99 to roughly $15 to download "the interview" president the movie earned more than $15 million on line and

$2.8 million in box office sales. that adds weight to the belief that movie he theaters no longer carry the sway they once did in hollywood. more than 227 million people in the u.s. and canada went to the movies at least once in 2013, but that's 20 million fewer people than the year before. it's a horror story for theaters struggling to stay in business. since 1995, one in foyer u.s. cinemas has shut down. media analyst covers the theater industry. >> the thinking behind that is that well, we should shut down unprofitable establishments and focus on large multi-plexes offering upgraded seatings. >> theaters are expected to earn $14.9 billion in 2014.

attendance is dropping within the 12-17-year-olds and 18-24-year-olds, in large part because of on line distribution. >> we see the rise of platforms like netflix and amazon prime sort of capture audience, especially among demographics that are kind of falling off the movie theater chains. >> that shift and the impressive on line performance of "the interview" suggest a deepening add attitude for on line watching. distribution growth has already exceeded $2 billion. revenue from u.s. subscription video on demand services like netflix and amazon grew 27% in the first six months of that year. sales for platforms like itunes grew 37% in the same period. >> hello, north korea. >> while sales for "the interview" are impressive, they were sometime not enough to cover the $44 million sony spent

to produce the movie. the company is optimistic. all the social media buzz will push the film into the black. >> the on line release is sony's top grossing film of all time, experts say the film has been illegally downloaded more than 2.5 million times. >> president obama weighs in on the state of race relations in the u.s., saying they've improved since he took office six years ago. >> our political contributor jay johnson joins us with whether the president has it right. >> a top honor for the one of the young evident and pride effort sports stars. >> time for our big quote on the heels of president obama's comments on race in america we turn to another world leader who has been on the front lines of fighting racism, as well. >> he said this:

>> has had that to say, next. >> pain killer addiction on the rise >> i loved the feeling of not being in pain >> deadly consequences >> the person i married was gone >> are we prescribing an epidemic? >> the last thing drug companies wanted anybody to think was that, this was a prescribing problem >> fault lines al jazeera america's hard hitting... >> today they will be arrested... >> ground breaking... they're firing canisters of gas at us... award winning investigative documentary series... opioid wars only on al jazeera america

>> who had this to say: >> our big quote is from archbishop desmond at you at you, putting his perspective on global tensions back in 2004. >> president obama weighing on the racial tensions in the u.s. in an interview the president addressed the current racial climate in the after math of police involved shootings. he said while there is mistrust, the relationships between black and whites has improved since he took office. >> i actually think that it's probably in its day to day interactions less racially

divided, but the issue has surfaced in a way that is probably healthy. >> the president signed an executive order creating a government task force to study ways to improve the trust between police and minorities. recommendations will be presented to the president by marsh. jason johnson is an al jazeera political contributor and joins us this morning from atlanta. you just heard the president talking about whether or not the nation is more or less racially divided than when he took office. what do you think? >> it's much less racially divided. one thing that tends to happen when everybody is poor, is people tend to get along slightly better. we've seen while there have been sort of issues of gentrification in certain cities, there is more

diversity in television. in our day to day lives yes american is more together today than in 2008. >> when he took office, the president said the growing gap between the have and have notes were going to affect this country. >> what your race is, whether you're african-american or asian america has to do with whether you'll get hired fired retain your job. race relations people may say they're not getting any better, but that's because we're now discussing them because we have an african-american president. these problems have persisted for many years. >> i want to go to the political landscape. did republicans place the name obama and everything they opposed because they wanted to paint him as a liberal or because they wanted to paint the democratic party as black playing into the racial divide

that we see? >> oh, it was both. a lot of republicans that you talk to will say look, i don't have a problem with obama because he's black, i have a problem with his policies and that is true for many, many republican and conservative voters. if you go back to the gallup poll in 2008, during the democratic primary 8% of republican primary voters said they would not vote for an african-american for president even if he was the republican nominee. you know that's got to be rive of the republican party as a whole. there were reasons obama's name was used and it wasn't just because they didn't like obamacare. >> ronald reagan fired the a irtraffic controllers signaling the start of the republican effort to get rid of big unions. now in new york, we're seeing the union members turn their back against the democratic mayor and the republican governor and exmayor coming to the side of the unions. what's changed? >> what's changed is we've had

14 years of lionizing and praising in particular new york city police officers and fireman since 9/11. look, the cops in new york have never -- you can go back to frank serpico in the 1970's, the cops don't like being held accountable for their behavior. i think this is less about who is the mayor and governor and more about a union resistant to any kind of change or oversight. >> jason thanks for being with us. >> 13-year-old pitching sensation monet davis making history, becoming the youngest player ever to win the associated press female athlete of the year award. she was the first girl to win a little league world series game. the eighth grader not only a baseball star also place varsity basketball for her high school. >> love her great story. >> coming up in two minutes from doha, much more on the crash of airasia flight 8501 and the

recovery effort in the java sea. >> tomorrow morning the complete analysis of what happened to that jet. >> we are right back here tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. >> from stage to screen oscar nominated actor ethan hawk >> the theatre has always bee my first love... >> separating art & politics >> if you have an agenda with people... you sometimes don't see the truth >> and the lifelong influence of his mother >> she was worried i was gonna be a spoiled brat and not see how complicated the world was >> every monday, join us for exclusive... revealing... and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time... talk to al jazeera only on al jazeera america

>> i'm joie chen i'm the host of america tonight, we're revolutionary because we're going back to doing best of storytelling. we have an ouportunity to really reach out and really talk to voices that we haven't

heard before... i think al jazeera america is a watershed moment for american journalism buddies and debris from the missing airasia plane have been located in the java sea. ♪ welcome, you are watching al jazeera, i'm jane dutton in doha. russian opposition leader calls for putin's government to fall after receiving a guilty verdict in a political charged trial. shots fired outside of the presidential palace in gambia while the president is abroad.